As It Is Diana's Day Off Today,

I am only making one post, we are going out for a drive,

back to Tuesday, as there is a train strike tomorrow I am visiting Duncan today, I was going to wear a short sleeve summer shirt, I was glad a did not,

and that I also had put on a jacket, it was a cold, grey, windy day as I made my way to the number 54 bus stop, as it happens the bus was early,

and packed, 

I passed Peter Pan's Pool,

the wisteria growing up the side of this building, now well past its best,

Lewisham market, open for business,

a box of melons anyone?

one of the perils of charging a EV from home, every week I pass here a EV is being charged, the householder laying a cable across the pavement, but no home electricity for him as he can no longer park his car outside his own home, I guess the much more expensive public EV charging station will be the only choice, until he can park outside his home again after the road works have finished,

I mentioned the bus was early, so early that the florists had not yet opened, and some good news as I went into the station,

the ticket office was open, so I bought all 4 tickets for my visits to Duncan for the month of June, then more good news the 09.31 was running to Gravesend and it was on time, so no lengthy wait at Dartford changing trains,

on the upline commuters already on their way to work in London,

just a 10 minute wait at the Gravesend bus hub for the 483 to the nursing home where Duncan stays,

as it happens it was even colder here than in Beckenham, I wish I had worn a fleece as well as my jacket,

off of the bus and up the hill to the nursing home,

a bit of blue sky almost breaking through the grey clouds,

a few more roses in bloom,

this one just about to open,

and this one has,

this yellow bloom standing out, even in this overcast day, Duncan was in good sprits, the birthday card we sent last week had arrived and whilst I was there one of the nurses brought in a card that they had signed, after opening his present, a Amazon fire stick, one of the homes electricians arrived to plug it in and put in the nursing homes password for wi-fi, in no time at all Duncan can now watch YouTube, ITVX, iBBC and a lot more, as this was happening we opened a bottle of bubbly to celebrate his birthday, as soon as the stick was working we watched some YouTube of Pattaya where we had both spent a number of holidays and eventually Diana and myself lived there for a number of years, also as I type this Rainham Steve is having a short break there for a few days before he starts going to some of the other places on his itinerary for the next few weeks in Thailand, as Duncan's lunch arrived we said out farewells and I made a move for the bus stop,

past the roses,

it is a pity that they do not last longer,

in Gravesend town centre a bus lane and a few other road schemes are being put in place, but why does it take until spring 2024 to complete them? it is now not even June 2023,

the 14.04 on time, and again no changing trains at Dartford,

I use the last carriage at the end of the line, that way only a short walk at Blackheath for the bus,

the florists now open,

with a nice display of potted,

and cut flowers,

but as we are out on Sunday I did not buy any here, the bus was soon here and it was packed, upstairs I could not get a window seat, so I could not take a photograph of the building that was still being worked on, but the scaffolding was still there, after the nearside passenger left,

I had a view from the window, the bee gardens on the top of the bus shelters not looking so good, they need water, 

I stayed on the bus past Foxgrove Lodge and the entrance to the park,

and the green,

alighting at Lidl,

for the same reason I did not buy any flowers here, as we are out on Sunday, shopping finished, back on to the bus then off again at Foxgrove Lodge,

and past these white peonies, 

this one in flower, 

and these will be next week,

the rhododendron in the small tub,

starting to put on a good show,

past the snail mail box and home, looking out of our window I remember when I meet the neighbour that lives next door as we chatted about having his over grown hedge trimmed, 

well he did whilst I was out, and this is the result,

green on the outside and brown in the middle, I think he may have left it a tad too long between trims, 

I decide to have a game of World of Warships, I did actually survive a few, but it was soon the evitable for the last game before my evening meal, if you look at the top of the screen, Green the fleet I was in, red the enemy, black sunk, 5 of the fleet I was in had already meet their fate, before my ship, above, went to the bottom in a icy sea, 

after my meal I watched the latest BattleBots, it is amazing how big some of these robots are, never mind the amount of work that goes into making them, before watching Hornblower as Diana was on late shift this evening, I had one more try at World of Warships, I actually survived a few games, even in my last game the last ship on my team to survive, 

again look at the green and red ship logos at the top of the screen, I was the only ship in my team still afloat, the red team had 5 cruisers left, it was only a mater of time! I then watched Hornblower until Diana arrived home, then feet up for a Midsomer Murder, before we were off to bed.

Although It Is Tuesday,

as soon as I post this I will be out, 

to visit Duncan, for two reasons, firstly yesterday was his birthday, but as it was a bank holiday I did not visit him as both trains and buses would have a limited service, secondly there is a train strike on Wednesday, so Tuesday it is, I had a quite day, Diana was at work, after my normal routine I played more than a few games of World of Warships, despite the occasional catastrophic wipe out I was sort of doing well, above one of my familiar endings, it is a screen shot of me the captain going down with my ship, as it happens I had amassed a number of credits and battle honours which if I did not claim them would soon run out, and there was the rub, to claim them I had to get a Amazon gaming account, which meant joining Amazon Prime, I like the game, but not enough to pay £7.99 per month to play it, 

in the late afternoon I watched the Battle of Britain, released in 1969 a real boys own gung-ho war time movie, from one reviewer of the film who reviews the film:

"From the very start of the film, Guy Hamilton's direction and the great musical score left me spellbound even when I knew how the story ended. The casting was flawless. Olivier looked like Dowding. Trevor Howard could pass for Keith Park's twin brother and I swear Goering himself had a small part in the film too. I've always wondered if Robert Shaw's role of the squadron leader "Skipper" wasn't patterned after famed RAF pilot A.G. "Sailor" Malan. If it was, Shaw looks a lot like Malan. "War in the Air" is one of my favourite pieces of music and it flows beautifully through the film. Great acting by Christopher Plummer, Michael Caine, and one of my favourites, Edward Fox makes this movie a must see for any WWII buff",

the above says it all, after my evening meal I decided on another couple of World of Warships, I think the game must have read my thoughts that I was not going to pay £7.99 per month, if you look at the screen shot below at the top of the screen there are green ships, myself and other allies and red ships, the enemy, and when a ship is sunk, the image turns black,

I somehow sailed into the enemy fleet, if you look at the middle of the screen there is a green ship in the middle, that is me, on both sides of me there are 4 or 5 red ships, and I was in all of their sights! and despite my best efforts at evasion was blown out of the water so fast my green ship at the top of the screen had not yet had time to turn to black to say I was sunk! I called it a night after that,

and decide to watch Venom, Venom, basically a alien takes over a humans body, great special effects and Tom Hardy really gives the film his all, towards the end of which Diana returned home, so a coffee a chat and feet up for a Midsomer Murder before we were of to bed.

Instead Of Our Usual Sunday Lunch,

we were going to have a picnic in the park,

so the trolley all loaded up,

and we were ready to go,

I took the trolley,

time for a pose,

and our walk began,

a selfie from Diana who was carrying the chairs,

past the snail mail box,

and here we are, 

time to start unloading the goodies,

first things first chilled bottle of bubbly into the chill bucket,

food on the table,

just in time for Steve and Kai to arrive,

Kai had brought along lots of Thai food she had prepared,

time to open the bubbly,

Ta-Dah!

'Cheers!',

time to eat, I stayed with the usual,

lots of spices from Kai,

I am not sure what the Thai food was but evidently it was delicious, 

after our lunch time to relax,

then the girls were off, 

to the mansion house to buy some coffees, 

we then all had a relaxing afternoon, on our telephones! well I did not as I do not have the app to look on-line, well I have but for some reason I get charged for it, when I took out my call plan my being able to have roaming Internet was not included, but there it is, after chatting the afternoon away we said our goodbyes and made a move for home,

where switching on the television, what better film for a early Sunday evening than a James Bond? today You Only Live Twice, dated but still great fun, 

we followed that with An Audience with Ronnie Corbett, a great British comedian and entertainer from the 1960s to the 1990s, I had the pleasure of going to his house a number of times, he and his family were so nice, he unfortunately died aged 85 years old after a lifetime in television and films, as an aside his beautiful home which was sold before he died, tragically burned down, such a shame, 

we rounded off the evening with one from the Hammer House of Horror, Scars of Dracula, which co-starred a very young Dennis Waterman, if you are into naff special effects the bat in this film takes a lot of beating, if only its electric wings did a lot faster! and with the end of that we were off to bed.